Brazil 2014 has potential to be history-making tournament

Not that Brazil 2014 would have much to compete with when measured against the past few World Cups.

In fact, you’d have to go back to 1986 in Mexico, the only World Cup that Canada participated in to have something so spectacular happen that it was immortalized in soccer history.

That was the Diego Maradona World Cup, when the little Argentine established his legend as one of the most famous, and infamous, soccer players in history.

Brazil 2014 has the makings of a history-making tournament and not only because of what might happen on the field. It is the first time the World Cup has been held in Brazil since 1950. It is the first time it’s been back in South America since 1978 in Argentina. The tournament will be like a welcome rain on a parched landscape for football-starved fans.

Brazilians, who are simply starving, though, will provide the tournament with something different to remember.

Dire warnings involving violence, crime and protests were issued before the South Africa World Cup in 2010. Not much came of them.

But Brazil 2014 is a different animal. With this World Cup costing taxpayers more than $11 billion — and an even greater burden awaiting them with the 2016 Summer Olympics — promises of improved infrastructure have already been broken. The cost of living is increasing. Drug dealing in the favelas, police corruption and violence are already problematic.

And expect massive social protests that will degenerate into confrontations. With Brazilians’ anger bubbling near the surface, protests are as much a sure thing as samba and drums during the tournament.

As for tournament preparation, Brazil stadiums are still not ready and, in order to be ready, some have had to scale back on the bells and whistles.

Fingers should remain crossed that a section of stands in a stadium doesn’t collapse given the difficulties already seen with the construction.

There have already been warnings of poor cell phone service and, given those issues, who knows what other technical problems will arise?

Thank goodness the soccer promises to be spectacular.

South American fans won’t put up with stagnant, lifeless football. There are six South American teams in this tournament. When you throw in Portugal, which plays the same style as the South American teams, the expectation and hope is that free-flowing soccer will be the order of the day.

But it’s also the essence of how the game is changing that will determine the style of this World Cup. There is a trend toward offensive soccer. Even the Italians, long known for their static football, recognize they no longer develop the quantity of shutdown defenders they developed at one time. They, too, play a more open style.

No European team has won a World Cup on this side of the globe and it certainly won’t be easy this time around with so many "home" teams wanting to show well.

But if there is a side capable of winning on foreign soil this time around, it’s Germany.

It is a nation that seems less affected by atmosphere and climate than other European teams. This will be the 19th World Cup and Germany has finished fourth or better in 12 of those. They have won it three times, finished second on four occasions, third three times and fourth twice.

The 2014 version of the German team has some injury concerns, but it also has tremendous depth and a necessary mixture of youth and experience along with skill and toughness.

While teams such as Italy and England rely on veteran players nearing the end of their international careers, many of Germany’s top men are in their prime.

This brings us to the other European favourite — defending world champion and two-time European champion Spain.

This is not a tournament that a team can win by scoring a goal or two each game. Spain plays the ultimate control game, moving the ball until it finds an opening. But it doesn’t score a lot of goals. While the Spaniards will get over the hump of playing Chile and the Netherlands in group stage play, there are simply too many good teams in this tournament for Spain to survive.

If you are looking for surprises, look to Colombia, Portugal or Belgium.

The winner though will come from the usual suspects, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy or Argentina.

And it says here that Germany will make history by winning its fourth World Cup title — this one on soccer’s hallowed South American ground.

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